Colorado Paycheck Calculator

Colorado is structurally different from most states on this site in how its income tax base is defined. Colorado Revised Statutes §39-22-104 sets the state's own taxable-income figure equal to federal taxable income — the amount left over after the federal standard deduction (or itemized deductions) — rather than having Colorado calculate its own separate deduction and bracket structure from gross income.

This calculator applies Colorado's flat 4.40% rate to (gross income minus the federal standard deduction), which correctly reproduces Colorado's real tax base for the large majority of W-2 filers who take the standard deduction and have no Colorado-specific addition or subtraction line items on their return. Tax Foundation's own 2026 state tax table lists Colorado's 'standard deduction' as $16,100 single and $32,200 married — explicitly the federal figures, confirming this is the correct modeling choice rather than an approximation.

Filers with Colorado-specific additions or subtractions (certain retirement income exclusions, for example) would see a somewhat different actual tax bill than this calculator's estimate, since those adjustments are genuinely taxpayer-specific and not modeled here — the same category of limitation disclosed for a handful of other states on this site.

Colorado's flat income tax rate has moved more than most states' in recent years, driven by the state's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), a constitutional provision that triggers automatic rate reductions in years when state revenue collections exceed a set cap. That mechanism has pushed the rate down from 4.63% through 4.5% and 4.4% over recent years, and even produced a one-year-only temporary cut to 4.25% specifically for tax year 2025.

Multiple sources confirm that temporary 2025 reduction does not carry forward into 2026, because current state revenue forecasts show no TABOR surplus expected for this tax year — meaning the rate reverts to 4.40% for 2026 rather than continuing at the lower temporary figure. This is a genuinely useful thing to understand if comparing this year's Colorado numbers to a prior year's: the rate isn't simply falling every year in a predictable line, it's responding to actual state revenue performance.

This calculator reflects the confirmed 4.40% rate for tax year 2026 specifically and does not attempt to predict whether a future TABOR trigger might produce another reduction in a later year.

Beyond income tax, Colorado runs FAMLI (Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance), a state-administered program funded by a payroll premium on wages. Senate Bill 25-144 set the 2026 combined contribution rate at 0.88% of wages, split evenly — 0.44% paid by the employee and 0.44% paid by the employer — a reduction from the program's original 0.9% combined rate.

This premium applies up to the same wage base as the federal Social Security tax — $184,500 for 2026 — meaning higher earners see their FAMLI contribution cap out at $811.80 for the year, the same wage-capped structure seen in comparable state programs like Minnesota's Paid Leave or Oregon's Paid Leave Oregon, though each state sets its own specific rate and cap details.

This calculator models the employee's 0.44% share as its own separate line, distinct from Colorado's regular unemployment insurance tax (which employers pay entirely and never appears on an employee's own paycheck), so the famli figure shown here reflects only what actually comes out of a worker's own pay.

Several Colorado cities levy their own local Occupational Privilege Tax (sometimes called a 'head tax') on top of the state's income tax and FAMLI — a small flat dollar amount per month rather than a percentage of wages, owed by anyone who physically works within city limits regardless of where they live. Denver's is the largest and best known: $5.75 a month withheld from the employee once they earn more than $500 in a calendar month working in the city, plus a separate $4 a month the employer pays on top, per the City and County of Denver's own Occupational Privilege Tax guide.

Selecting 'Yes — I work in Denver' above adds this calculator's denverOpt line: $69 for a full year of Denver work ($5.75 × 12 months), assuming the filer clears the $500 monthly earnings threshold every month, which any full-time salary well above $6,000/year does. Someone working in Denver for only part of the year would owe less — this calculator models a full 12-month year of Denver work as the standard case, the same simplification used for every other flat-per-month payroll figure on this site.

Denver isn't the only Colorado city doing this. Greenwood Village withholds $2 a month past a $250 monthly earnings threshold, Glendale withholds $5 a month once earnings reach $750, and Sheridan withholds a flat $3 a month regardless of how much a worker earns — each city sets and administers its own rate and threshold independently, with no statewide OPT registry tying them together. This calculator's locality selector only offers Denver; anyone who works in one of these smaller cities instead should manually add that city's own flat monthly fee on top of this calculator's result, since it isn't modeled here.